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New at DIY MFA: How Mirror Characters Can Illustrate Literary Themes

/ saraletourneau / 9 Comments

DiyMFA

When two characters use similar traits or functions in opposite ways, they’re known as “mirror characters.” These pairs are a great way of creating conflict or relationships – and, oddly enough, a frequent source of literary themes. In the latest Theme: A Story’s Soul article at DIY MFA, we discover how mirror characters can help illustrate theme, using examples from Kristin Cashore’s Fire and Sara Litchfield’s The Night Butterflies. And, if you read closely enough, you’ll see how both examples mirror one another. 😉

Click here to read “How Mirror Characters Can Illustrate Literary Themes.”

Got any questions or suggestions for Theme: A Story’s Soul? Feel free to comment below or tweet me at @SaraL_Writer with the hashtag #AStorysSoul.

Chronicling The Craft: 100,000 Words

/ saraletourneau / 24 Comments

A Glance into the Faeries’ Magic System

Chapters Completed: 24

Chapters In Progress: 6

Chapters Not Started: 4

“Chronicling The Craft” is an article series where I share my experience with writing my current work-in-progress (WIP), which is a fantasy novel. Every 5,000 words, I let readers know what I’ve accomplished since the previous article and share advice, discoveries, techniques, etc. Besides the word count in each article title, a “chapter ticker” at the top also tracks my progress as I use the skip-around / “writercopter” method to write the novel. Today’s installment celebrates the book reaching 100,000 words in length.

YES! Actually, it’s more like, “WHEW! OK, am I almost done yet?” *lol* Seeing the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel has brought on a kind of “can’t-wait-to-finish-this-draft” itch. Unfortunately, with the upcoming December holidays on top of the usual commitments (if you have a day job, you know what I mean), I’m reminding myself more often to be patient. Thank goodness I’ve got some time off planned right after Christmas and around New Year’s. Guess how I plan to spend the bulk of that time? 😉

If you’ve been following this series, you may already know I’ve done “reveals” with every 25K-word milestone in the fantasy novel. Now that I’ve hit 100,000 words, it’s time for another! But first, here’s a quick update of what I’ve worked on since the Chronicle for 95,000 words:  Continue reading →